| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
Lasagna Gardening: layering organic matter like Mother Nature By Barbara Armitage Adair County Garden Club. (270) 250-2979 No digging, no tilling, no weeding, no kidding! Lasagna gardening is a simple method of layering organic material just like Mother Nature would and letting the garden do the work for you. In the beginning... My fist garden was a disaster. I had a shovel, a hoe and a rake and I nearly had a heat stroke. Everything I knew about gardening could be summed up into one word "dig". I dug up the grass and weeds. Then I double-dug the soil 12 inches or more deep - raked and hoed until the soil was loose and smooth. All I grew in my garden were blisters, a sore back and a bumper crop of weeds. A better way... Fighting nature is not the best method for gardening no matter what you want to grow. Instead follow Mother Nature's way and create your garden by layering a variety of organic material in the garden area and then simply waiting for the garden to grow. Now is a good time to begin a garden that you will plant next spring. Location, Location, Location... All plants have a "happy place". Most vegetables grow best in full sun while annuals and perennials may prefer sun, shade or a combination of both. The availability of water is important - most plants require a minimum of one inch of water each week and even more in very high temperatures. Once you have selected your site DO NOT disturb the soil by digging or tilling. Your site will depend on what type of garden you want to grow and the conditions in your yard. There will be a test... It is always a good idea to test your soil both before you begin your Lasagna Garden and after it has had time to develop. Soil tests are inexpensive, easy to do and available at the Adair County Cooperative Extension Office, 409 Fairground Street, Columbia or an Extension Office in your county. Your Extension Agent will advise you based on the results of your test and the plants you want to grow. The recipe... Just as you would prepare lasagna in the kitchen a Lasagna Garden is built in layers.The first layer is important as this is where you take control of the grass and weeds that are growing in your soon-to-be garden. A thick layer of newspaper (at least 12 to 15 pages thick) or cardboard boxes make the best organic weed block and will decompose in time. Soaking the newspaper in water before laying it out will make it easier to work with especially on a windy day. Plain brown cardboard boxes - the type from the grocery store work best, be sure to remove any plastic tape or staples before you place them in your garden. Be sure to completely cover the area leaving no grass or weeds to peek through. Building subsequent layers is now a matter of what you have on hand. Almost any organic material will do. Each layer should be from 3 to 6 inches deep with a total height of 18 to 26 inches. That's at least four to eight layers or more. Keeping the right balance will help "cook" your bed. Use about 4 times as much brown (high-carbon) material as you do green (high nitrogen). In an eight layer bed you might use a layer of grass or lawn clippings and a layer of Kitchen scraps for your green layers and combinations of chopped leaves, peat moss, chippings, compost etc for the brown layers. The order of your layers is not critical. Adding manure layers early will eliminate any possible weeds from germinating if the manure is not well aged. I like to top my beds with a generous layer of chippings just to help hold everything else in place. Some suggestions for layers are:
Water the finished bed to thoroughly soak all the layers. Covering the bed with black plastic helps keep the bed moist and traps the heat from the sun speeding the "cooking" process. Be sure to weigh the plastic down around the edges to help hold it in place. Let your new garden "cook" for about 6 to 9 months- uncover and plant. It is not necessary to till the new soil before planting it will be loose and easy to work. Keep the soil well conditioned by continuing to add organic materials throughout the year. A good layer of mulch, chopped leaves or chippings will keep the soil moist and discourage future weeds. Be sure to reuse, recycle or dispose of the plastic properly. This story was posted on 2009-06-20 10:49:48
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic News:
The Adair Co. Garden Club offers Two great achievements: Macy's Parade, baseball field unity Adair County High School baseball gets field renovation! Treehuggers have chance to visit Adair's famous Chestnut tree Relay for Life and OVW Wrestling ACHS cheerleader booster meeting tonight Faith, Family, Fun and Fitness tonight at Trinity UMC Tim Allen retirement dinner, June 27, 2009 at Cranmer Agrees with Shamarie Claiborne on property rights Happy News: Adorable kittens have now all been adopted View even more articles in topic News |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
